About the Producer

I moved to Colorado from Cleveland Ohio in 1991 and live in the Denver area with my wife Sue. I started in broadcasting in 1999 with the creation of the public affairs radio program, Colorado Today, with Sue as co-host. The program was broadcast on AM 1430 KEZW radio through 2006. We presented weekly segments on healthy lifestyle living with interviews featuring healthcare and lifestyle experts, government officials and community activists to share topics of interest to area families. Kaiser Permanente became our primary sponsor and gave us access to their healthcare professionals for interviews to inform the listener about maintaining good health through lifestyle choices. Among our many interview guests were the Secretaries of the US Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS); Donna Shalala (President Clinton), Tommy Thompson (President Bush 1st term), and Michael Leavitt (President Bush 2nd term). Colorado Governors; Bill Owens, Bill Ritter, and John Hickenlooper. US Senators; Wayne Allard, Mark Udall, and Ken Salazar. US Representatives; Bob Beaprez, Diana DeGette, and Tom Tancredo. Denver Mayor Welligton Webb and Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer. Health and wellness organizations and lifestyle experts from all over the country were valuable resources for the program. We also did remote broadcasts from area events that showcased healthy lifestyle resources. In 2002, HHS granted us funding through the National Aging Services Grant Program which allowed us to expand into public television along with our radio program. The Rose Community Foundation provided additional funding through their community grant program. The expansion into public television featured fifteen programs on caregiving your elderly loved one that I produced and was hosted by Sue. The broadcasts promoted best practices in eldercare and provided useful information for the family caregiver. The grants were managed by Healthy Aging Today, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and I served as the organization's executive director for the two-year grant period.

As part of our programming, Sue and I produced a local PBS special, Fighting Breast Cancer, A Personal Story, broadcast in October 2002 on KBDI-12 PBS (now CPT PBS 12), as their feature broadcast for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sue was both the broadcast journalist and the breast cancer survivor. Collaborators included the Susan G Komen Foundation and Porter Adventist Hospital, where Sue received her cancer treatment. Porter Adventist Hospital was a major funder of the project as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Sue's doctors and healthcare providers were interviewed on camera, as the viewer was shown the process from breast cancer diagnosis, followed by surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and finally with aftercare, in battling the disease. Fortunately, Sue has been cancer free going forward. Although it's been twenty years since the original broadcast, the program still has relevance in showing positive outcomes with early detection and treatment of breast cancer. I encourage everyone to view and share this program with your network. It can be lifesaving.

Beyond broadcasting, Sue and I produced documentaries and informational programming. A sample of the variety of productions include: Most Hallowed Ground, The Story of Arlington National Cemetery, which was used by schools to educate students about our first National Cemetery dedicated to those who served our country in time of war; I was the military historian for the Douglas County television program titled A Simple Thanks, honoring military veterans from all wars since WWII; The Story of Hospice, Special Care at the End of Life, produced for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; Advance Directives, Making Your Wishes Known; A special interview with former astronaut, Col Fred Gregory, detailing his first hand account of the Challenger disaster as the Communications Officer for the doomed mission. View those programs below.

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

In February 2009, I had the honor of interviewing Col Fred Gregory, Astronaut and the first African American to command a space mission. Col Gregory was the lead CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) for the tragic Challenger mission on January 28, 1986 and shares his memories of that fateful day and the aftermath. The families of the lost crew members decided to honor their loved ones by creating the Challenger Center for Space Science Education that establish Challenger Learning Centers worldwide. There is a Challenger Learning Center in Colorado Springs, where I filmed the interview along with footage of students performing shuttle experiments and ground control simulations. The primary purpose of the filming was to produce two Public Service spots for the local PBS station, featuring Col Gregory and Jim Reilly, also an astronaut, to encourage students to consider careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). For more information about the amazing career of Col Gregory go to his Wikipedia biography. Watch the interview below.

Getting back into broadcasting by creating and self-funding OCBN is my way of "paying it forward" to the community that has given me so much over the years. I hope you find these programs informative and will share them with your network. Your suggestions and input about topics and guests are welcome and thank you for your interest in Our Community Broadcasting Network.